ToughButterCup

Welcome. I hope you don't mind me asking : why are you getting drawings done before applying for PP? Do you already have Outline Planning Permission? If so, then thats fine. I am trying gently to suggest that if you haven't got Outline PP, then presenting detailed ( = expensive) plans means that the LPA Officer has more opportunity to reject your application. Have you had the chance to read this yet? https://www.gov.uk/guidance/making-an-application#types-of-application

Before you do anything else at all, could you answer this question please? Have you bought the property yet, or made an offer ? The very first thing - and at any event BEFORE purchase - you must establish how the foul drainage will work. And - if you cannot connect to a mains sewer - how will that drainage system be powered? In relation to the property, how far away is it from the barn? ( see @Temp's comment above) The response, "Oh, we'll put a digester in" is not good enough. You need to follow The General Binding Rules ( look them up)... Where will you discharge the 'liquor'? Is there a local stream? Read up on all the nightmares about foul drainage here on BH. If someone says that you can 'share' their ('our') sewage system - HERE-BE-DRAGONS. (... detail later if you need it) Everything else can wait. You must instruct your solicitor (or professional handling the purchase) to get definitive, clear replies to the questions above. Watch for 'spin' in the replies you get We will be happy to review the various responses you are given. You might usefully look at the planning history of the barn: how many times has planning permission been applied for? What Conditions have been applied to the property

There are other terms for the same thing in common use on Buildhub Overthinking it Sleepless nights Worrying Monmaniac Peptic Ulcer Give it a rest sweetheart, its Friday night and the kids need putting to bed (as usual) How much? At least Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask. We are what the academic Research calls a Community of Practice : or Experts by Experience. But we don't have Professional Indemnity Insurances So 'expert' we aren't. Just hard-bitten, nosey and mostly friendly. You might want to look at the concept of Due Diligence in some detail. It occurs a lot here (I wish it didn't) - just use the site search engine for a bit a quiet fire-side reading tonight. Or click this link

Here are a few ideas to get you started. No particular order because everything relates to everything else. A simple eyeball inspection. Where is it in relation to : neighbours (access ownership) , geology (slope, water table, wind, trees, clay, sand, ) all will have an effect on build cost. Services : no foul drain disposal - no house, where's the nearest electricity, water, fiber, phone Trees: TPOs? heave? age - survey them maybe Noise: downwind of a motorway, railway line, airport, Structure: look and worry ,or look and 'feel' its in good nick How far are you from a pond (newts or worse, GCNs) . Or bats, or anything fluffy that ecologists pretend to look after? Technical :by that I mean any dicipline which attracts Professional Indemnity Insurance Structural Survey: choose a surveyor with great care - ask for a fee proposal and an exact definition of the aspects to be surveyed - from at least three reputable firms Law: usual stuff - boundary disputes? access rights Do you need an architect - or architectural technician? Ground around the barn iffy? Wet, dry .... get a reputable ground worker Which surveyour does your mortgage company use (if relevant) Ask around. Who knows what about the history of the place? Estate Agent? Network in the local pub - emphasis on work and listening Best of luck, Ian

Here is the Product Support page for your equipment And here is their Customer Support listing We aren't experts - hard bitten and experienced, yes, but not experts. Good luck

It's a long read, but worth it: it will save you (and us) agood deal of time

Yes. First, request a certified copy of the " guidance". I think there's at least some chance there is no technically valid guidance ( hence '...certified copy....' so they can't later claim 'Oh that was sent in error' ) If there is some guidance, ask them - politely at first - to link to or send you the evidence base on which that decision (in this case minimum 15m build separation) was taken. Get them to send their answer to a Structural Engineer working for you. Thats important - because they will be tempted to consider you as a nuisance and that even if they gave you chapter and verse, you wouldn't understand the reply. If, as is likely, they stone wall, submit an FOI request for the information. If you get this far, then ask when that decision ( 15 meters separation ) was taken, and when it was last reviewed, and by whom and what qualifications did the reviewer have? While you are doing this, List each airshaft (photo - GPS location, description) Gather evidence of the distance of all the buildings next to the airshafts Request a list of all the repairs to the airshafts that were necessitated as a result of building in the proximity of airshafts, and the dates of repair You now have a databse of evidence with which to challenge this (in my opinion) probably ludicrous 15 meter rule. Post here when you've got that done. Good luck I'm nosey as Hell. Where is this (GPS or Google map or other geo-reference..... please?) Ian

I recon if I could have put my hand on the right tool instantly - over the last few years I might well have already saved a week. I've just had to sell one of my containers and put everything all those tools that were in there in my other container. If I get to the end of the month with any hair left, Ill be happy.

Did they tell you about the intended charge at the time? Yes: what did you agree at the time? Something? Anything? Nothing? No: - well thats a pity , because it's unfair to pluck a number out of the air AND NOT tell me in at the time. Consider the local politics of not paying. Who - locally - does he know. Because not paying him will pour poop into the local well. Does that matter? Are you are a Domestic Client under CDM 2015 ? If so, fine - if NOT then more care is needed. As a Domestic Client you have no responsibility for estimation errors on his part. If you are a Commercial Client you could be expected to have taken more care to check his estimate - or quote.

Or - cheaper - quicker - more customisable - cast in situ concrete ?

Every single proper self builder has several £uckMe moments. 8 years in and they still happen. At this stage in the game I'm just glad to get to the end of any one day without one. You get better at handling them, and when you can't there's oodles of help here.

Morning, good to have you with us. There's a wealth of experience here. Lots of help available. You might need a sense of humour sometimes....

Yes. Geberit do a series of them . I already have to use one (back injury). They all have an app from which you can operate the flush, the temperature and the flow rate. It runs on my phone. If I were further incapacitated, a carer could operate it for me. It also prompts you to descale and maintain it. It shows you how to do it with a video Of course my misplaced sense of humour got the better of me.... you're there before me aren't you.... I still have a considerable number of Brownie Points to go before she forgives me for operating the flush from my phone while she was on the loo, and I was outside in the garden. Honesty is not always the best policy.

This thread is about trust, not plumbing. @Dee, Forgive the change of focus to my experience: I write this to illustrate the point about trust. I paid my way round my first degree by cleaning the windows of the Great And the Good in Oxfordshire. Often, I (stupidly) gave a year's credit impressed as I was -then- by customers' status - many of them landed gentry. Think of the largest estate in Oxfordshire - it's an offical palace linked to Wellington. Well I cleaned there, and the Lord Lieutenants, a very famous bankers house(s), and a good few Peers of the Realm, not far from where Clarkson lives now. I had been working there for two or three years. At the end of one year, I asked for payment. The non-resident owner (he lived in Charlbury nearby) asked me how much it was. I've forgotten how much now..... He grunted, took a large roll of £20 notes out of his back pocket and peeled off £100 LESS than he owed me. "I'll owe you the rest" he said looking at the floor. I looked at him and his wife who was standing nearby. Her face flushed red, and glared at him . "Your Grace," I replied, "Gestures like that are designed to remind me that I'm down here, and that you are up there - and we knew that before I stated cleaning your windows: could you pay me the rest please" He hadn't heard because he had disappeared down the corridor. His wife silently took out her checkbook and wrote a cheque for double the difference. Next job, that day was the The Lord Lieutenants place - as it happens right at the end of the estate private drive. I was still angry when I got there. He sensed it and asked what was wrong. I told the story. "Hmm , he grinned " he just wants to make sure you come back: had he paid you in full, you might never go back. And he knows half the Board at St Cross (my college)- if you put one foot out of line, you'll never work in Oxfordshire again - you're not just cleaning windows - youre selling TRUST AND clean windows. Now, pop down to the wine cellar and choose yoruself a good claret" Top bloke. Sir Ashley Ponsonby that was. When I got my degree, he put on a silver service tea for my whole family at his private residence. Taught me an unforgettable lesson. Unless you have come to know and trust a tradesman, initially retain an appropriate amount. For the first time someone works for us, I usually ask for the trades day rate, and pay promptly for the labour. And pay for the materials after 30 days if all is well.

The first plumber I dealt with on my build was awful - to the extent of being actively mendacious. Knew his stuff (ostensibly) but was over-trading and under-capitalised. He might have turned up, but luckily - and with the help of colleagues - we cut the relationship short. The next plumber was ( is still) the exact opposite. Polite to the point of shyness, does what he says he will do to a proper (standard?) local price. And his company has just won a national award for excellence. And drops in on his way homne to fix my daughter's dripping tap. To your point @Dee: my example is the exception that illustrates the rule. It's nothing to do with you. Your experience is common. Trades also tell me that many customers are less than straight too. But we're not talking about customers here...... If our joint (communal) experience of working with trades folk were the opposite, this Board would have no - or many fewer - members. So many of us are here because of the £uck-it-I'll-get-on-and-do-it-myself and the How-much?-Do-you-think-we-are-made-of-money? aspect of the build experience. This place is to a large extent - How the Hell can I get round this problem? Would you have posted here if all had gone just fine and dandy? And - short term - there's no satisfactory solution to your problem. Thats what grates. There is one partial remedy: pay an appropriate proportion of your bill - and keep the rest as a retainer, payable (say) when the next stage of the build is complete. Uncomfortable, i know, but if the tradie is coming back - it's (or should be) no bother should it?

And thats about standards of personal behaviour. People who behave like that (couldn't-give-a-tossitis) are developmentally stuck in something like teenage. Think for a moment if that were not to be the case : then there would be no need for published Build Standards, no need for CPD, no need for statements of Best Practice because individuals would think it normal for colleagues to review one anothers practice and learn from the outcomes of progress reviews. Personal and professional development would become normal. Think of that. Normal. For the life of me I can't see how best to work with people like that: I'm not in a therapeutic relationship with people who work for me so it's inappropriate for me to tell grown men to answer-the-damn-phone, behave - clean up - know-how-to-do-their-job-properly. How does anyone build a bridge with people like that? And what's worse is we are desperate to get our damn houses finished. And politicians bang on about Life Long Learning. Doing it the way I've 'solved' it - DIYMAX - is not for everyone.

Dunning Kruger's yer go-to explanation . Painful to read your post... once noticed, you realise it's everywhere.

Has the manufacturer got some : If-Your-Name-Is-@Pocster installation instructions?

'... enthelapy and moisture heat ....' I know its early on a Monday, but its in at the deep end - for me anyway. Given that Tinternet is full of shared ignorance, could you point me to something authoritative 1I can read up on enthelapy, and moisture heat please?

Now that, that's interesting. .... unless I could automate a system I invested in four or five SensorPush data loggers. Work on bluetooth, log every few seconds, and while not cheap, they are cheap enough for me to buy some. Mine ran for four years before the battery failed. Still working 6 years later. The output is easily understandable and can be sucked into a spreadsheet with ease. Here's a quick look at a years' data..... suggestions for 'box' construction Dunno. But I know who will have an idea : @Onoff @SteamyTea, @MikeSharp01, @Jeremy Harris , @TerryE, @JohnMo and especially @MJNewton You bought a core cheap (FleaBay) Can you explain what a 'core' is - yes it's a heat exchanger - ..... but what's the search term I should use so I can while away the long winter nights fantasizing about doing the same as you have..... There's just one niggly naggly thing in the back of my mind...... The Apex DIYMAX man himself , @Jeremy Harris built all sorts of things on his MVHR installation ( he's likely building a nuclear reactor out of matchsticks somewhere right now). But four years after he had finished his install, he wrote about how he wished he had bought off the shelf stuff - maintainability and spare parts was the issue. FoockIt: the end result doesn't matter, it's the journey that counts, right? 😐

Might be a useful idea to log those temperatures over (say) a year and post them here. I'm really interested in the detailed design of what you did because we're fairly close to second fitting an MVHR system, but as usual don't have enough money. Do any manufacturers publish expected differences between the intake and outlet temperatures? Perhaps they might also do the same about the difference in expected relative humidity? Anyway, have you got any photographs of your self built unit? Don't be shy now...

It might be an idea to use an opening (for the fan) that's on the down-wind side of the house....

Drop in at my place and check mine over when yer driving south on the M6 from Cairn Ryan .... Are those numbers (or rather the differences between them) what you'd expect?

Ughhh. You have my sympathy. No point in looking back or anything like that. FLIR camera: good start Airtightness: key issue First thing - a survey of what's leaking in , where, and a judgment of how much - set priorities Go for the easy wins first - doors, windows, letterbox, sockets, ceiling rose A concrete block build you say - with cavities filled with insulation. Lets assume (for now) that that job has been done properly. Would you mind telling us the trade name of the build system please? Does the manufacturer have any guidance on airtightness? Has it been followed? Who designed the house? What was the Building Regs submission - what was the airtightness strategy in that submission. What was your air-tightness score? Break the problem into bits. Prioritise. Source materials. Ask us for advice on each little bit. Only too pleased to help (And we're nosey as £uck) Head-Down-Arse-Up-Go. Every single Self Build £uck-Up has its up-side. Look for it and you'll find it. Good luck. You are among sympathetic friends here. Ian

Not only training and experience, though. Attitude is one of those hidden aspects of any domain which hides in plain sight. You can be trained and be experieced all you like : if - post training - your attitude accepts a bodge as good enough - because you can hide it , then unless theres extrinsic motivation (...I'm going to lose my licence to pratice ..) , you won't develop as a PERSON Think check-rides as a train driver / pilot / bus driver. Who check-rides a plumber? ( shaaaadup @Pocster )